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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Circus Birthday

You may wonder why I get so excited about my kids' birthdays. My excitement does not come to brag or to boast, but more from a place of concentrated celebration.

Concentrated celebration?

Yes - a celebration that is concentrated on one particular thing.

Still confused?

I grew up as an only child and all our daily lives centered around ME! This means that I felt tons and tons of love from my family, but I admit that at times I was somewhat spoiled.

Thus, I equate "all about me" as "love." I have outgrown this in my old age somewhat.

My biggest obstacle to overcome as a parent of three kids is how to make each of the kids feel special and unique. I know this is crazy... and I love their sibling bond... and none of them complain that they don't feel special... but I just want them to know that they are each so very special and unique and they are all held in high regard in my life. You understand this. Right?

So, while I have to treat them all equally during the course of a regular year, a birthday is a time to look at one child and say "YOU are really special to me and today I want to celebrate YOU!"

Am I making any sense???? Does anyone else have this inner conflict (does each child feel special?)??? Anyone???

We were off to an early start with the festivities when Fairy Grandmother and Luvs2Boat brought over a water table.

It was not assembled when they got to the house because they thought that the kids would have a great time putting it together as well. They were so right.

All hands were on deck and Brody really enjoyed that he could "help" put this present together for his sister.

Brody was the first to announce that Bri would definitely share "her" water table with him. Hmmm... just like she shares "her" sandbox from last year, right? {{Note: I think that Brody forgot that the sandbox belongs to Brielle.}}

Many hands make quick work and it wasn't long before the water table was up and running. She definitely loves her water table.

Bro knew that he was not allowed to get in it. But, that didn't stop him from talking someone else into jumping in. Really guys???

Moving on.

The next day, I was in full birthday mode while the kids were at school.

First, I made a monkey cake (using these instructions from smitten kitchen) for daycare... and ran it over before snack time. {{Yes, I know I should have made it ahead of time but we were too busy playing in the water table... napping... ahem.}}

Since we were going to a small circus at our local fairgrounds, I made a circus cake for home. This was especially meaningful for me, because it was a replica of a circus cake that my mom made me when I was little. Cool, huh?

Here's the undecorated cake with the photos from my childhood birthday as a template.

Look! Not too bad, right???

It's just like I remember.

I knew that it would be late when we got back from the circus, so I set the table before I left.

They didn't have any circus-theme balloons at the store, so I had to go with the next best thing... monkeys, of course.﻿

In the days leading up to the circus, Bro was adamant that he was nervous about the circus because "tigers scare me" he said.

He had this concerned look on his face the entire time the tigers were performing. {{I am sure that he and I both had the same concerns, except that I was able to fake a smile. Gulp.}}

Bri kept telling me not to take her picture. I did eeek out this blurry cheese. I tried to tell her that I was taking Daddy's picture, not hers, but she wasn't buying it. "MOMMY - do NOT take my picture." {{Fine then... be that way.}}

After the circus we raced home to have cake and open presents with the birthday girl. She squealed when we rounded the corner to the kitchen and she saw her cake and monkey balloon.

I wish we had more pictures of the evening. However, we are dealing with a toddler here and after a whole day of festivities (yes, they even celebrated at school) she was not in any condition to pose for pictures.

In attendance, but not pictured were, of course, my parents Fairy Grandmother and Luvs2Boat... even though they were late. {{Hi Mom - I'm just kidding about the late part!}}

And now for the grand finale...

As many of you know, my favorite picture of the year is blowing out the birthday cake candles. It's a little blurry here, but I think you get the general idea...

Happy birthday to the spunkiest girl I know... Happy birthday to you!

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2 comments:

Somehow I missed Brielle in/on the water table...how cute is that...glad you got a picture. I love making each child feel special...it doesn't seem hard...it seems natural because they are each very different and very special!